April 2012 & April 2013

Remember this picture? I took it on my last day of maternity leave. G was 3 months old. So small snuggled in my neck.

Tonight Chris took Grant and the dogs on a walk while I cooked dinner and Grant passed cold out. This never happens! (He was in the Ergo on Chris' back.) When they got home and I saw he was asleep, I scooped him up so fast so I could snuggle my sleeping boy. G monkey was worn out from daycare and playing at the park with friends. He didn't want to wake up! He finally did and ate dinner, took a quick bath and we were able to get him into bed for the night pretty close to schedule.

I had to replicate our previous picture (selfie!)

14 months

I'm so bad about these monthly updates, but I don't want to forget the cute things grant is doing lately.

New tricks:
Waving - he does the open handed wave as well as the open/close grasp wave

Clicking his tongue (or maybe this is an old trick?)

Giving kisses

Making noises with his hand/mouth and lips

Not walking yet but getting better while holding our hands.

Really loving the dogs right now. All three sit by the back door when I get home from work. He loves when Moses' big tail hits him in the face and when pepper licks him. He loves dropping them food from his high chair and tries to play in (and eat!) their dog food.

We're in a pretty good groove avoiding all dairy. Grant is allergic to cow's milk protein so that means no milk, cheese, yogurt, butter! We've become avid nutrition label readers (I have good practice!) and searching allergen menus at restaurants. He is doing really well with vanilla hemp milk. He's too young to know any better, but it's challenging to avoid dairy completely. Butter and/or milk is in everything! Hopefully he'll outgrow this in a few years, but if not, we're figuring it out. It seems like we've been dealing with this for a long time, but actually it's just been the past two months.

Size 3 diapers, trying to get back into cloth at home (took a break while figuring out the allergy)

Still fits into some 12 month clothes, but more 18 month clothes now

No new teeth, still sucking on his left two fingers

No new stats, but g is getting heavy! Ready for him to walk so we won't have to carry him as much.

Off to bed. Happy April!

Adios, Google Reader

If you use Google Reader to read blogs (who doesn't!) and haven't heard, Google Reader is retiring July 1st.

They say usage is down.  Usage is probably down because they got rid of the "share" and "comment" function awhile back!  Boo, Google.  I know some people who created a gmail account JUST for Google Reader.  Anyway... what's the alternative?  Reading blogs by actually going to the website is not going to happen.

There are several sites out there but I'm sure they're not the same.  Some friends are trying out bloglovin'.  I just downloaded feedly on my iPhone.  So far, so good.  You can sign into your Google Reader account and transfer all your blogs in one second.  The layout is very nice!  This is what the "cover" to my last blog post looks like in the app: 

The tools will take some time to get used to.  I've only messed with it for a couple minutes, but you can "bookmark" posts (recipes!) to save for later.  Having a decent app is one thing Google Reader did not do right so Freely gets points for that alone!

Let me know if you find something better.  I don't want to miss out on all my blogs!

Busy Saturday

What a day. I am so tired!

We went to a birthday party this morning. (Happy Birthday, Olivia!). It was at an indoor safari park. They had some electric animals that the kids rode. Grant wouldn't sit on the elephant, but did want to show off his tricks by standing on the elephant for his turn. He had fun crawling around the tunnels and sliding into a ball pit.

Then we headed home for lunch and a nap. Well, "No Nap Grant" had other plans and decided it was more fun to pull all the dirty clothes from his hamper into the crib.

Next we headed down to Fair Park to the Irish Festival with Chris' family. It was a lot colder than I was expecting so we bundled Grant in a blanket to stay toasty. Lots of people watching! And Grant went on a huge slide with Chris.

Since we were so far from home, we decided to swing by the new Klyde Warren park downtown and check out the food trucks. So fun! Grant is going to love it in the summer and when he's old enough to play on the playground. We did sit and read a book in the "reading room." Amelia Bedelia, my favorite!

Ready for a lazy Sunday!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Grant's second Valentine's Day.  I asked him if he remembered last year.  I sure do! I was home on maternity leave snuggling my 2 week old!

This year Grant is getting this fun bath toy (thanks, Pinterest!).

One YEAR!

Holy cow.  I have a one year old!  This past year has been totally amazing.  Some days I feel like we're doing alright and other days I think we're just chasing the clock and trying to make it to the next day.  Hopefully that will improve as he gets older, but I'm sure they'll be new things to keep us busy.

Weight:   21# 3 oz. (48%) 

Teeth:  6.  Four on top and two on bottom.  The third bottom one is starting to think about popping out. (one week later and the count is 7!)

Favorite Foods:  black beans, oatmeal, bananas, cherrios/puffs, brisket.  He still loves pureed foods but we're working on more table food.  He's doing really well so far with diced fruits and vegetables, crackers/bread and some tender meats. 

Likes:  the VACUUM!  The kid is obsessed.  I even looked up a kiddie size Dyson but Chris said no.  He bangs on the closet door that the vacuum is in and he cries when I put it away.  Bathtime:  now that we ditched the baby tub, he loves to crawl back and forth, stand up and plop down making a big slapsh, having a big cup of water dumped on his head, putting his face underwater (what?!  scares me, but I think he'll be ready for swimming this summer).  Unrolling toilet paper, watching Daddy hacky sack, taking clothes out of the dryer

• Favorite toy: lil' zoomers spinnin' sounds speedway (thanks, aunt tania!)
        

Dislikes:  Laying still on the changing table, getting his nose wiped

He is such a joy in our lives and we are so lucky to be his parents.  Happy Birthday, Baby!  We love you!

Adventures in Craigslisting

Don't worry, this story is PG. And that title isn't entirely true. It wasn't Craigslist but a Facebook garage sale type group. But here's the stupid story...

Grant is obsessed with our vacuum. Obsessed! He crawls to the closet door, will open the door if cracked, and rolls out the vacuum. If we're vacuuming, he will crawl right behind us to watch every second. He cries when we put it away. He loves it!

So I looked at some of the toy vacuums online. I mean, come on. How cute is this mini Dyson?!

http://amzn.com/B009386Q9O

But they all get terrible reviews, are expensive for a little toy and between Christmas and his birthday, Grant does not need another toy right now.

But a little toy vacuum came up on this garage sale site and I wanted it!

It was $6. Not bad. And she lived in the same town my sister does 17 miles away. Again, not bad, I don't mind that drive.

So the day when we meet comes and I find out she actually lives in the town North of where I thought I was going which is further away from me. Ugh. But, that's fine. It's Saturday, we have no plans and I already committed to this girl. (Um, I just looked up the mileage for this story and it was 29 miles one way! What was I thinking?!).

Chris did not like me going by myself. I hated to force Grant into his carseat for that long for all of us to go and I didn't want to send Chris alone on my ridiculous trip.

So Chris stayed home with Grant and I took a knife. Makes perfect sense.

I thought Chris was being silly and meeting up with a stranger you met online was totally fine, right? (Catfish!!! Manti Te'o!!!). The Facebook group is a little more personal than Craigslist because you have pictures. Then I remembered, this girl didn't have a picture! Her profile picture was Barbie! And her cover photo was Barbie's dream house. I should have known.

So then I started to panic a little. All kinds of crazy thoughts went through my head (too much Dexter!). But I still went on... and on and on. The drive was nuts. I thought I was in Oklahoma!

I get to our public meeting spot and wait. She's running late. She finally gets there. All is good. She's not a crazy murderer and I give her my $6 and I get a silly little vacuum for Grant. I didn't haggle ahead of time.

Then it takes me another 45 minutes to get home.

I clean it up and give it to Grant. He likes it ok I guess. It's nothing special and once he started playing with it, I noticed the sound is broken. It sounds like a broken record, so that's really annoying. (Maybe I should try changing the batteries?). It also doesn't stand up on its own. And the best part, on the bottom when I was cleaning it I noticed a price written in marker... $2.99! Wah, wah.

What a waste! Lesson learned. No more Craigslist for me!